


In The Town of New Elmore

by eievuiisms



Category: The Amazing World of Gumball
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Character Development, F/M, No Plot/Plotless, References to Depression, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-19 04:10:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19349224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eievuiisms/pseuds/eievuiisms
Summary: After an incident caused by Superintendent Evil, known as "The Switch", all Elmore residents are now real humans living in the real world, in a city they not-so-cleverly dubbed as "New Elmore". The story, while having no genuine plot, explores the characters and how they all deal with their new reality.(Will likely update irregularly; will update tags as fic goes on)[CURRENTLY ON HIATUS]





	1. Official Incident Report of "The Switch"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The official incident report on "The Switch" - an incident that occurred on June 24th, 2019 - as written by the New Elmore municipal government.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i figured i'd post the first chapter of this today since the show's officially ending. for the record, this has absolutely nothing to do with my other ongoing tawog fic, 'sometimes things end' & is a separate idea that i built up & decided to explore because the idea of a society of ex-cartoon characters living in the real world interested me - & hopefully, you enjoy it as well!  
> i apologize if this first, brief chapter seems a lil rough around the edges - i wrote it a while ago lol

**August 27th, 2019**

An incident occurred on June 24th, 2019; an incident that has come to be known as “The Switch”. From witness reports, the beginnings of the incident had been in motion since about 8:15am, with the arrival of a man - grey hair, five-foot-nine-inches, roughly late seventies - at Elmore Junior High. He was initially believed to be the school superintendent, thus the recorded name of “Superintendent Evil”. According to Nigel Brown - the principal of the junior high - it was under the impression that he was only coming for an inspection, but upon his arrival, Evil had discussed “stomping out all cartoonish conduct.”

At the time, no one had any idea what he had meant, but some of the noted demands included the following: Making a student erase their own face, only allowing a student attend class if they were in a grave (which, according to the student in question, wasn’t even made with soil), and forcing another student to open a door “properly” despite the student not even having hands. There were several other regulations and demands that had been made during this period, which were generally believed to be “ridiculous and petty” by students and staff alike. It is currently speculated that Evil might have made these demands to distract from what was going on behind the scenes.

 

Around 10:00am was when the incident truly began. “We were told to keep the students in their classrooms,” reported Moonchild Corneille, a teacher at the school. “He said he was doing a character check of the students. I kinda found it sketchy. Actually, I think everyone did, but I think we were afraid to say anything, so we just did as he said, and he started calling students down. But none of them were coming back. He kept calling them down, but he wasn’t returning them, and it was hard to think that something wasn’t up. Then he started calling staff down, and I knew he’d been lying.”

From what can be gathered, Evil had somehow been converting students and staff into humans. How he did this is unknown as of writing the report.

Most of the happenings in Elmore Junior High after that are unknown - most witnesses report that they can’t remember much. “I remember him calling me down, but barely,” a student - Masami Yoshida - said. “I definitely couldn’t say what happened after that.” Elmore residents outside of the school seem to be in the same boat, and cannot recall the transformation even happening. The latest memory any resident has wasn’t until 9:30 in the evening, which was mere minutes before The Switch actually occurred. Some citizens reported that Elmore had begun to “fall apart” before The Switch actually occurred, though there is little that can be done with this info at this time.

 

Evil, who is the main suspect for The Switch and believed to have known something others didn’t, has not been able to be located as of writing this report.

It is important to note that not every citizen was able to be reached for this report, which may mean that some information might be accurate or missing. At the time of writing this,there is high interest to speak with the Watterson family - who have, in the past, been affiliated with many an incident. However, they have refused to make any comment at this time.


	2. First Day of Reintegration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a two month adjustment period, September 1st has arrived - which means it's time for New Elmore residents to return to work or, in the Watterson kids' case, school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nothing really //that// special tbh. its more an introductory chapter/me trying to establish the setting & some of the characters more than anything.

**June 24th, 2019: Elmore Junior High School**

“Trust me. This is in your best interest.”  

 

The two boys shot up from the floor, fear clear on their expressions as they stared at the machine that was before them, not knowing what it did but fearing it all the same. There was currently no one in it - ‘Evil’ had made sure that it was fully available and ready to go when he’d gotten Masami to fetch Gumball and Darwin from the classroom.

The two took a nervous step backwards, but gasped when they found the people that had once been once their schoolmates were right behind them. They turned, but before they could even react, Tobias and Sussie had grabbed Darwin while Tina grabbed Gumball. Both boys screamed in alarm, immediately struggling to get out of their grip, begging for them to let them go. Their grip, however, wouldn’t budge. In fact, Gumball noticed that it almost seemed  _ too _ solid - as if he had his arm stuck in concrete rather than someone’s hand. He always understood Tina was naturally strong, but there was no way she could be completely  _ unmoving _ while he was struggling as hard as he could against her. He shot a glance over at Darwin, and it seemed as if though he was having a similar issue.

He looked back over towards the ‘superintendent’ ( _ there was no way this guy could actually be a superintendent. He  _ refused _ to believe that he was actually the superintendent _ ) just in time to see him wave someone forward, murmuring, “Give him to me.” Gumball didn’t know which ‘he’ he was referring to, but his heart leapt into his throat all the same. The cat soon found himself being shoved forward, landing on flat on the cold floor, hearing Darwin call his name right as he did. “Shut the door,” he heard the elderly man instruct the humans, “He doesn’t need to see this.”

“No-!” he heard Darwin cry in alarm as Gumball practically peeled himself from the floor. He looked over his shoulder, his eyes wide and frantic meeting Darwin’s equally as frightened gaze right as Tina reached for the knob. “Gumb-” the fish called again, cut off by the door closing.

 

“Darwin!” Gumball called in return, quickly getting to his feet to go pound on the door. Before he could even take a step, though, Evil had grabbed ahold of his upper arm. “No!” the boy shouted immediately. “Let go of me! Help! Someone help! Please! Let me g-” The man shushed him, but not sharply as one would expect. Actually, it was more of a gentle hush, which was what made Gumball stop shouting out of shock.

“I know this is scary,” he said. “And I know you’re confused. But believe me-” In his shock, Gumball had stopped struggling, which had made Evil able to properly put him in that strange vat ( _ Wait. The vat? No - no, he’d put him through a different procedure before the vat _ ), shutting the door behind him. “One day, all of this will all make sense.”

Gumball started pounding on the glass, shouting but not saying anything ( _ He’d begged to be let out, didn’t he? No- _ ). Suddenly, he could feel the vat filling up with water ( _ -He couldn’t have been saying anything because the vat was already filled with water _ ), and pounded harder, hoping that maybe he could, somehow, break free. He could vaguely still hear Darwin’s voice calling his name, telling him to wake up-

 

( _ These details are all wrong. This isn’t happening. _ )

 

\--

 

**September 1st, 2019: The Watterson Residence**

“-Wake up,” he’d just managed to hear in his half-awake state, before having a whole pillow land on his head as if it had been thrown. He groaned, grabbing the pillow and tossing it back on the floor without even really thinking. He heard Darwin give a small sigh, and say, “Mrs. Mom said you have to.”

“Yeah, I know,” Gumball replied, words somewhat muffled due to his face being pressed so hard against the pillow that he was pretty sure he’d have pillow scars on one side of his face. He managed to muster up just enough energy to turn his head, dark brown eyes fluttering open to look at his baby-faced brother ( _ not that he didn’t have a baby face - he just felt it wasn’t as obvious on him as it was Darwin _ ), who already looked fully dressed and ready to go. It was then he realized that his mother must have allowed him to take his sweet ol’ time getting up until the moment he couldn’t stay in bed any longer. “Tell her I’ll be down in a minute.”

Darwin gave a small nod. “Alright.” He turned to leave, but paused at the door. He seemed like he wanted to say something, but wasn’t sure what to say exactly. He eventually decided on saying, “Don’t rush yourself, okay?”

“I won’t,” was all Gumball said before the other boy left. He said that, but mentally he was telling himself if he didn’t rush himself at least slightly, he’d never make it out of the room before school was over. He begrudgingly forced himself to swing his legs over the side, his feet making contact with the cold floor. He didn't make much of an effort in picking out his clothes - he just plucked a random shirt from its hanger and grabbed a pair of jeans to go with it. Heck, even  _ that _ was more effort than he’d been willing to give - if it were up to him, he’d have just worn his trademark sweater. However, his mom had confiscated it and hid it somewhere after he had refused to give wearing it a break for ten days straight. It was weird, actually having to switch up clothes at least every other day, but eventually it just became part of routine.

 

As soon as he was dressed, he left the room, and as he approached the stairs, he could already hear his mother talking to what he assumed was another reporter - well, more like the same reporter - downstairs. “My husband and I have no comment, my kids don't have our permission for an interview, I don't care if it fills in blanks in the report and I don't care if it looks like we’re hiding something. Stop calling this number - and have a nice day,” she’d said, monotone and not even stopping for a breath. As he reached the bottom stair, she had put the phone back on its receiver and was already going back to the kitchen table. He had paused in his step, taking a moment to look at his family.

His siblings were eating cereal, like normal; his mom had a cup of coffee in her hand, like normal. His dad was looking through the newspaper for a job which, while it seemed so startlingly unnatural at first ( _ especially given what happened the last time he actually got a job _ ), now could arguably be considered normal by now ( _ Though he preferred to pretend that his dad was only pretending to look for a job. That seemed far more normal than the reality _ ). For the most part, everything seemed like a fairly normal morning. It was the same house, the same people.

The only difference was the world in which they lived.

“You still haven't blocked that number?” Anais asked as her mother went to return to her seat.

Nicole shook her head. “I’ve purposely held off. I rather they call than come to the doo- oh!” Her eyes lit up upon noticing Gumball. “Good morning, sweetie!”

The rest of his family immediately glanced over at him, and he quickly felt awkward just standing there. He continued his way to the table, murmuring, “Good morning,” as he took his seat next to Darwin, cereal already placed in front of it.

“Did you have a good sleep?” she asked as she took her seat, sipping her coffee as she waited for an answer.

He gauged for a moment whether or not she was taking a small jab at him for sleeping him, but decided not to care. “Yeah,” he lied automatically, “Fine.”

“Good!” Now he could tell that she was, in fact, trying to sound positive and optimistic - just as she did whenever she suspected he was having one of his more down moments since coming to this new world. Her dark blue eyes looked between her children, as she asked, “Are you all excited for school today?”

“Yeah!”

“Mhm.”

Gumball didn’t respond, poking his spoon into his cereal but making no move to actually eat any, having not really been paying attention. “...Gumball?” Darwin asked, giving him a slight nudge.

“Hm? Oh, yeah. Sure. It, uh - it’s probably going to feel the exact same as the old one.” He worded that more cynically than he had intended, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t really disguise the fact that, for one reason or another, the fact that New Elmore was almost an exact copy of Elmore made the change harder to swallow.

“Well, then you should feel right at home,” Nicole replied. He wasn’t looking, but he could already tell that smile must’ve wavered at least a little. The small talk continued, but he, once again, stopped paying attention - and since no one said his name or nudged him again, he guessed that they stopped trying to talk to him. Not for a lack of wanting to - they could probably just tell that he wasn’t really in a talkative mood at that moment.

 

He couldn’t help it - he’d dreaded this day the entire summer, and he was still dreading it even though it was here and happening whether he wanted it to or not. The town had gathered together back in late June and, somehow, had come to this bizarre conclusion that two months was enough to get used to the new world and move on. Actually, Gumball had ranted about it on and off during the entire break. “It’s not fair!” he’d said one time. “Our whole  _ world _ is gone! Everything we knew is  _ gone! _ That could take  _ years _ to get over, and they’re only giving us two months!”

“Well,” Nicole had replied with a patient sigh as she worked on supper for that evening, “We can’t wait years, so we’ll just have to make due with what time we do have.”

At the time, he’d hated that response. Looking back now, though, she was grateful for at least not having that ‘the sooner, the better’ attitude a lot of residents seemed to have. None of his family seemed to think that way. They all seemed like they agreed with him, but they weren't expressing it quite as freely as he was.

 

The boy was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of a bus horn honking. Automatically, his family started moving, now ready to move on with their day. He got up along with them, but it was mostly out of habit than his own will. He grabbed his backpack, and was about to follow his siblings out the door- “Gumball,” his mother called, making him stop in his tracks. “Shoes.”

He blinked, then glanced down at his socked feet before catching on. “Oh. Right.” He probably would’ve felt a little embarrassed if not for the fact that he wasn't the first in the household to almost wander out without his shoes. It was easy to forget when one had once been able to wander around in bare feet all the time.

Nicole handed him his sneakers, and as he put them on and tied the laces, she said, “Try to have a good day today, okay?”

“Okay, mom,” he said, not sounding all that convincing. So he tried again, looking up at her and giving her a small smile. “I will.”

She paused, looking him over as if searching for something in his expression, but she returned the smile and placed a small kiss on his head. “I love you.”

“Love you too, mom.” He headed out the open door, calling over his shoulder, “Bye, dad!” He heard his dad return the goodbye right before he shut the front door.

 

He saw Darwin  _ just _ get on the bus when he started approaching the bus door. He started climbing up, not really thinking about it until he’d heard Rocky say, “Good morning, Gumball!” The boy looked up to see the bearded man flashing that same smile he’d flashed every other morning back when he was...well, a puppet. It almost caught him off-guard - Rocky was one of many that he’d never really seen since The Switch, so seeing him look so different yet behave the exact same seemed a little jarring.

“Morning, Rocky,” he greeted, hesitated, then added, “Nice beard.” He promptly climbed up the stairs and turned to take a seat as the bus driver gave a very pleasant ‘thank you!’ He found himself pausing once again as he looked at the people on the bus. Everyone looked so  _ different _ now, but yet he could pinpoint exactly who each person was just by where they were sitting, or how they were talking amongst each other - or even just looking at their appearances. Leslie had an outfit that, while not really Gumball’s style, was likely considered highly fashionable by him; Alan was dressed in a respectable manner, complete with his hair properly combed. It seemed so weird to him, and as a lot of the students stopped to look at him as he walked by, saying ‘hi’ and ‘hello’ as he passed, he wondered if they felt the same way looking at him.

He quietly took his seat next to Darwin at the back of the bus. “It’s cool seeing everyone again, isn't it?” Darwin asked.

“Uh - yeah, it's...interesting. I mean, I actually  _ recognize _ them.”

“Yeah, exactly. I was thinking that I’d have no idea who was who, but I do.”

“They probably all made it obvious on purpose so there was no confusion.”

“Or we know them well enough.”

Gumball paused for a moment, then shrugged. His brother was probably right - they  _ had _ spent a long time with them to guess how they'd probably look now. “Maybe. Probably.”

“Gumball?” The voice made both boys flinch in surprise. One of the other things about the change - for reasons unknown to anyone, everyone sounded slightly off to how they used to. They had the same inflections and speech patterns, but they never sounded quite the same as they did before The Switch. But that voice ( _ that wonderful, beautiful voice _ ) - he’d recognize it anywhere. He looked up immediately, his gaze falling on a girl wearing a yellow blouse and a pink skirt, holding a book close to her chest.

“Penny,” he said, a bright smile appearing in his features. He hated to admit it, but while he’d spoken to her over texts, he hadn't really seen or spoken to her over the summer. Between her and her family readjusting, and his own...issues, they never really found the time. So seeing her finally was a very pleasant surprise. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she replied, flashing a warm smile right back at him. She nodded her head to the spot next to him. “Mind if I sit?” She barely finished the sentence before the boy scooched over, patting the space beside him. She took her seat, placing her book in her lap. “It’s good to see you two,” she said, giving a slight wave towards Darwin.

“Yeah, you too,” Gumball replied as Darwin returned the wave. “Uh - how has your summer been?”

“It was alright. My family and I did quite a lot of things together, actually. Did a lot of ‘sightseeing’.”

“S-...Sightseeing?”

“Mhm. That’s how dad put it, anyway. Really, we were just going around New Elmore, seeing what’s what.”

“Oh. And was there really...anything new?”

She thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. “Not really. New Elmore feels and looks a lot like Elmore did.”

He could see Darwin glance at him nervously in his peripheral, but he ignored it, instead forcing a laugh. “Yeah, I figured as much.”

“How about you? How’s your summer been?”

He knew the question was coming, but he internally winced at it all the same. Now it was his turn to nervously look at Darwin who, unfortunately, could only give him a small shrug. Of course, Gumball wasn’t willing to admit that he’d spent a good majority of his time complaining and moping, so when he turned back to her, he decided to casually shrug. “...Shockingly uneventful.”

Penny blinked, obviously not expecting that type of answer, but giving a small laugh. “I suppose I’m not surprised by that.” Gumball’s heart leapt - for a split second, his mind decided to think that she was referring to the fact that they hadn’t hung out all summer. However, she said, “I mean - it’s not like too many whacky shenanigans would really happen in  _ this _ place, would they?” and he relaxed at once.

He shook his head. “Yeah, no, uh...no. I guess it really wouldn’t.” That was the thing about a place that actually  _ abided _ by the laws of nature and physics - the incidents that had once been a near-daily occurrence for him and his family were now at a complete halt. It sounded weird for him to say he missed the more chaotic side of his life, but…

He was surprised to feel Penny’s hand on his, his gaze looking down at their hands before meeting her golden-brown eyes. “It's really good to see you again, Gumball.”

“...Yeah.” He gave another smile. “It's good to see you, too.”

 

\--

 

**September 1st, 2019: New Elmore Junior High School**

“It looks…” Darwin spoke hesitantly as he looked up at the school building, attempting to put his thoughts into words but being unable to think of the right way to phrase it.

“It looks the exact same,” Gumball said bluntly, looking unimpressed at the large building before them as they, along with the rest of their school, stood in front of it, waiting for the front doors to open.

“No! No, it, uh...it…” the slightly younger boy stammered, his mouth hanging open to say something else before he shut it and shook his head. “Yeah, no, it- it really is just the same, isn’t it?”

“Mhm.” The front doors began to open, and the students all seemed to straighten themselves as their attention was towards the doors now. Out stepped the staff - and Gumball could immediately hear the students chattering amongst themselves, hearing ‘is that Miss Simian?’ and ‘oh my gosh, Mr. Small looks like  _ that? _ ’ and things of that sort of caliber. Even Gumball leaned over to Darwin and asked, “Is that Principal Brown?” while looking at the brown-haired man with a long beard and glasses.

“I think so,” Darwin replied.

“He looks like he should be running a magic school in the Scottish Highlands,” he joked, earning a snicker from his brother. He couldn’t help but crack a smile himself - good to know that his tongue hadn’t lost its sharp wit over the summer.

 

The students had been instructed to sit in the school auditorium for a brief, start of the year assembly. As he’d sat down, he’d overheard some student - he couldn’t hear their voice well enough to guess who - ask another, “Is anyone else feeling a little uncomfortable right now?” Gumball decided not to seem as if though he was eavesdropping and didn’t answer, but he agreed with them, and couldn’t blame them for feeling that way. Just a few months ago, they were sitting in their old auditorium, listening to that awful old man ramble on about how their school was ‘indecent’ and ‘diseased’ - and now they were sitting in an exact replica of it for an assembly ( _ which really isn’t the strongest way to start the school year, in his opinion _ ).

Principal Brown had stood on the stage at the podium, and started giving...some speech about ‘perseverance’ and how they’d ‘push on despite the challenges they faced’ and how he ‘expected everyone to still do their best’ and that ‘Mr. Small was there if anyone needed to talk’ but he ‘was sure they wouldn’t need to’ and so on, so forth. Truth be told, Gumball had spaced out before this motivational speech had even started - it was one of those cases where he’d had a thought, then suddenly he was going down a bit of a mental rabbit hole. Before he knew it, everyone was getting up and ready to go to their classes.

“Well, that was something,” Darwin said in a sigh, grey-green eyes looking over at Gumball. “You ready?”

He knew completely what he’d meant, but he couldn’t help but say anyway, “Yeah - ready for this day to be  _ over _ .”


End file.
